Deepti Sharma’s controversial run-out of Charlie Dean continues to be the harbinger of breaking news with erudite personalities of cricket getting into the Twitter fray over it. Despite MCC’s verdict on the run-out being legitimate and above board, what remains the sting in the matter is whether it was ethical or not. The spirit of the game which has been violated here is the hot topic that gives rise to the exchange of words.
India’s renowned cricket analyst and commentator Harsha Bhogle jotted down a series of thought-provoking tweets that hit out at the English media and reflected on what he called the colonial mindset for chiding young Deepti Sharma.
The thread sees a series of tweets that smack of acerbic ranting from the 61-year-old.
England’s test captain and all-rounder Ben Stokes is the latest to the edition of the mankad debate with his two pennies. Stokes and Bhogle were involved in the swap of tweets while countering each other.
It was the second tweet from the thread as the last straw that broke the camel’s back for Stokes as he replied to Bhogle taking exception for bringing the English culture into play.
Stokes took to Twitter visibly miffed at the tweet and replied “Harsha ... bringing culture into peoples opinion over a Mankad?”.
The all-rounder while replying to one of the other tweets also brought up the 2019 World Cup incident where he accidentally deflected the ball to the boundary while diving. Stokes reveals how he still receives revilement over it from Indian fans despite the World Cup being three years old. Stokes tweeted in reply to Bhogle “I still till this day revive countless messages calling me all sorts from Indian fans, does this disturb you?”.
To which Harsha finally breaks silence and replies in his favour over the 2019 World Cup incident but sticks to his guns on the matter of running the non-striker out by mankad.
“Well, you were not at fault on that one so with you there. On the reaction in England to the non-striker backing up, I think it is what you are told when you learn the game and so, part of culture. Very happy to chat about it one day if you have a moment. Cheers”
Stokes without delay gets back at Harsha for singling England out on the matter and states that it is the others as well and not only the English with differing opinions on the run-out.
“What about the rest of the world’s reaction to this particular incident? England isn’t the only cricket-playing nation who have spoken about the ruling.” Stokes replied to Harsha’s tweet.
